What the Hell was I thinking?!?!

We've already covered that the holidays are FAST approaching. What are we down to now? 41 days? Something like that...40ish days until Christmas. I'm in the midst of planning Christmas parties and trying to figure out when I'll clean the house for Christmas parties to occur and also trying to figure out how to get everything done for Thanksgiving and make a smooth transition into the Advent season.

Of course one of the quintessential events of this time of year is Christmas cards and Christmas Photos. Ok, well maybe not this early in the game, I mean season- or so I thought. The Christmas cards have been purchased-think I covered that one, too. Now it's time to take the photo. I found a cute turtleneck/sweater vest ensemble for the boy and of course the girlie peanut has two, yes two, dresses. Why two you ask? Well, it's quite simple-I fell in love with both of them. How did I justify these two purchases? The first one was generously bought by grandma. The second one, I just could not resist and it was on sale- 40% off! I told the husband that the peanut can wear one dress to my dad's side of the family Christmas and Christmas Eve at the in laws and the other dress for Christmas Day. (My dad comes from a very large family and we celebrate all of the major holidays a week or two before the actual holiday.) BUT with two dresses, the girlie peanut must have her picture taken in both- alone and with the boy.

So, today grandma and I an the kids headed out for some fun and shopping and pictures. I really do love having the kids pictures done. My kids are posers- not the loser type of poser from the early 90s- they love to show off when the camera comes out. It's really quite cute. So, we went to our local baby store and I knew it was going to be problematic when I saw how full the parking lot was but I kept it to myself- maybe everyone was there to start a registry. HAH! The line for the picture studio was halfway through the store. So there we were armed with two dresses, a snappy little sweater ensemble and two very willing children and it was NOT going to happen. I was not standing around for 2 hours until they could get us in. Apparently, everyone had the same idea as we did for today....Christmas photos...or Holiday Photos. To say the very least, I was disappointed. I really wanted to see the kids' pictures today. I wanted to see them all dressed up and smiling. I wanted to see the girlie peanut in her pretty dresses and black patent leather shows. I was excited. Plus, I was ready and armed! I had the outfits, I had all I needed...it was today or never. Now it's Wednesday or never.

My mom put it best, "I guess the holiday rush has started before the holidays this year." Yup, it has and part of me- as much as I want the holidays- is a little sad about that. I hope we don't forget about the special part of this time of year. The reason behind the season. (yeah I went for the rhyme) The husband and I both agree that we're very excited for Christmas this year. We have NO money and that's ok. We have not had a great past few months/weeks and I think Christmas and the season really offer both of us this ray of hope that things are getting better or will get better. Christmas is such a promising time, a time of new life and light, it's just so rejuvenating- except for all the greed and rude people (who were experienced today at the mall, briefly).

The holidays are here whether we like it or not. I am DETERMINED to get these Christmas pictures taken this week so that I can write my cards and have them ready to go out by the beginning of December and I'm going to keep planning these Christmas parties regardless of the money factor. Christmas is about life, sharing, friends, happiness. We don't need money for that. We're creative- we have a full freezer, our friends will eat anything and our kids smile for any camera out there. Life is good...Christmas is coming...I'm excited! What the hell was I thinking trying to put off the good feelings of the holidays?